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Pictus catfish

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We have a 46 gallon bow front that is still cycling but my husband wants pictus catfish because his grandmother got him some when he was younger and they remind him of her. I see they are semi-aggressive and want to know how many we should keep together and what fish are compatible. He also wanted a convict but I don't think they would get along.

The reason that Pictus Cats are quite often labelled aggressive, is because a lot of people try and keep them in a tank that is too small, and they try and keep just one of them. Pictus are a schooling species of Cat, and like nearly every schooling species of fish, they will lash out at other fishes, or go shy if they're forced to live on their own.

Pictus are very active fish. The more you have, the more active they will get, but also less aggressive. But as for a good tank size, I would start at a 48" long 70g, and have 4 Pictus. The bigger the tank the better for these guys, as they're very powerful swimmers, and they can sometimes grow upwards of 6". Absolute minimum size for 1 Pictus, would be a 40g long, but even then you'll probably have trouble with the Pictus being aggressive, because he'll be on his own, and the footprint of the tank is still a pretty small area.

I haven't had anything much to do with Convicts, so I'll leave that part to someone else!

If the Convicts don't work out either, and it's cichlids that you would like, there's lots of different sorts of dwarf species that would suit your 46g. And some of those dwarfs will fit into a community set up just nicely, so you can have a nice mixture of fishes.

Three-fourths of the Earth's surface is water, and one-fourth is land. It is quite clear that the good Lord intended us to spend triple the amount of time fishing as taking care of the lawn. ~Chuck Clark

Thank you both. I am sure it will be a while before we do anything with catfish or convicts because right now what we have is 4 black molly's and I am not sure they can stan up to those fish. I really want to give him his fishies because the reason we got the tank is so he could get them. Might have to get the pictus and have an excuse to go bigger. ;-) will a couple of pictus bully my 4 little girls?